Bishop warns against illegal sale of church property.

He said that some office-bearers of the Churches of North India were operating in connivance with land mafia.

It is heartening to note that a Bishop has come out, lashing at the plunderers of Church Properties. Will this ever happen in Archdiocese of Bombay?

Parish Priests, the so called SOLE TRUSTEE, in many of our parishes have taken advantage of their position and clandestinely sold Church Properties. We, through SILENT VOICE, have taken up many such issues with Archbishop, Cardinal Oswald Gracias. Though His Eminence has issued similar orders, some time ago, we are apprehensive about it.

A Bishop himself, has instructed Parish Priest of St. Michael’s Church, Mahim; to regularize illegal construction by a businessman, on Church Property. Under what category of deals, does this fall; we are not sure. There is no response from Archbishop, to our letter dated 8th April, 2011; though he mentioned during one of our meeting that he is trying to find out, under what circumstances, Bishop Instructed the Parish Priest.

Management of Church Properties in the Archdiocese of Bombay will not improve, unless the Church is transparent about it. In many cases, Properties are shown on the paper but physically they don’t exist. Where have they gone? Nobody knows.

One Such case is St. Anthony’s Church; Malwani. Fr. Austin Norris, the Present Parish Priest has been provided with the list of Properties, supposed to be owned By the Parish….

He has since, started fencing some of the properties, which were being neglected by his predecessors, and began putting up signboards, so that parishioners would know about it. We appreciate his efforts and are willing to support him, in his endeavor to reclaim the encroached properties, as and when possible.

A Church of North India bishop has come out strongly against the illegal sale of church property.

Bishop John Augustine of Jhansi said some office-bearers of the Churches of North India were operating in connivance with land mafia and selling off clandestinely prime property owned by the church and leasing it.

“This is in clear violation of government order where it is mandatory to seek the permission of district magistrate before entering into any such transaction,” the bishop said on Saturday.

He alleged that recently a prime property belonging to Christian Inter College in Jokhanbagh area of Jhansi under the control of Presbyterian Church valued at around 200 million rupees was sold reportedly by a bishop and his associate for a sum of 12.5 million.

He added that reports of sale of property owned by Church of India, Lucknow Diocese are also coming in from districts like Gorakhpur, Ghazipur, Sultanpur, Varanasi and Jaunpur and legal action would soon be taken in this regard.